Cooking Channel Show to Spotlight Main Street

By Sarah Baker

Celebrity chef Guy Fieri recently visited six Memphis-area restaurants for his Food Network show, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” all of which have opened within the past few years.

Fieri filmed tutorials of how to make best-selling menu items with the chefs of the Elegant Farmer, Rizzo’s Diner, Three Angels Diner and South of Beale in Memphis, as well as Memphis BBQ Co. and Memphis Street Café in Mississippi.

Hosted by Chuck Hughes, the show’s premise is to avoid the more “touristy” streets, and instead discover and elevate a lesser-known street.

“When you hear about Memphis, you always hear about Beale Street, which is great, but there’s a lot of partying,” Hughes said. “For me, being on Main Street, actually going down that street and traveling down it on the tramway, I feel that you get a bit of a better vibe of what Memphis is.”

Hughes got to sit down and talk with the restaurateurs of each eatery, learn about what got them into the food industry, and also cook and try several of the most popular menu items.

“It’s really about showcasing these passionate chefs and bringing that to the screen,” Hughes said. “We try to showcase old and new and everything in between. Ultimately, it’s about the viewer learning how to make these foods and to see that there is so much authentic, great, amazing stuff happening in their own backyards.”

At Grawemeyer’s, which had just opened when “Chuck’s Eat the Street” crews visited in mid-August, Hughes was introduced to chess pie for the first time.

“It was one of those things that’s very, very simple, but then you eat it and you’re like, ‘Wow. How can something so simple be that good?’” Hughes said.

Not only did Hughes get to visit and eat ribs at the Rendezvous’ iconic restaurant at 52 S. Second St., he also visited the warehouse off North Main, which ships more than 2,000 pounds of ribs worldwide daily.

“Whether it’s the roasting, whether it’s the quality, whether it’s eating them, whether it’s talking about them, he’s just totally, totally passionate and loves what he does and keeping that tradition alive,” Hughes said. “It’s been there for almost 100 years and they’ve been roasting peanuts the same way they did in the beginning of the century.”